Month: November 2016

Come January it will be two years since we moved into our little house. The first year that we were in we constantly had a project on the go. At one point we were simultaneously fitting a new kitchen and decorating both the living and dining rooms. There was no stopping us. Every spare minute we had was spent doing some sort of DIY job or other. By the end of the first year we had made good progress with the downstairs almost being complete (the loo didn’t manage to get a look in and the hallway carpet remained on the t0-do list until we could decide between tiles / carpet / runner etc) but all in all we had worked pretty hard!

The second year however, has not been quite as productive. All we seem to have managed this year is to decorate our bedroom, and even that just involved re-jigging some furniture, a quick lick of paint and the addition of a clothes rail. We’re still “getting around” to doing the carpet and finding a new bed…

So what happened?! I had big plans for this year. I thought I would be relaxing in my new rolltop bath in my freshly decorated bathroom by now but instead I sit in my very un-inviting bath staring at the floor to ceiling blue tiles wondering how we got so lazy! And don’t even get me started on the hallway carpet. I resorted to what some-might-say was a rather drastic attempt at speeding this along by spilling a full tin of grey paint on it but even that didn’t work – I’ve walked past the humongous grey spillage several times a day, every day for over 6 months now and still we haven’t managed to get around to replacing it!

We just seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall and somehow need to find our motivation again.

As you will probably have seen we’re very excited to be welcoming a new addition to the family in March of next year, which means of course that we absolutely HAVE to decorate at least one room before then. I am hoping that knowing that we have to do this will spur us on to finish those jobs that we just haven’t managed to get around to. Just to add to the pressure I thought I would share my list of jobs in the hope that you lovely people can nag me if it looks like I’m not going to achieve at least half of these by the end of the year!

So here goes.

The Nursery. This absoultey HAS to happen. If I haven’t at least ticked this off the list then I’ve failed completely.

Mollys room. Yes my dog has a bedroom. No, it doesn’t have dog print wallpaper or doggy furniture. In all honesty, it’s just a spare room but Molly has claimed it as her own and now takes herself off to bed in the armchair in there. It hasn’t been decorated since we moved in and could do with just a simple freshen up.

The Bathroom. I long for a bathroom that I actually want to spend time in, rather than one I cannot wait to get out of! It’s a very small room so we need to be clever with the space, but honestly anything would be better than how it is now. Did you not hear, floor to ceiling blue tiles?!

The Hallway Carpet. Another thing that absolutely has to happen. It looks like it’s been down for about as long as I have been alive. Time for it to go, paint spillage and all.

The Downstairs Loo. Probably not essential and therefore quite low down on the list but still I would like to change it up a bit. I fancy something quirky, not sure what exactly yet…

A New Fence. Back in the summer I posted about how I was desperate to change my ugly fence. Well, of course I never got around to it despite actually having bought some new panels. These WILL be fitted come Spring time. I promise.

The Front Garden. Again, probably not essential but my front garden is just a bit…bleurgh. It bores me, needs to be prettier.

The Under Stairs Cupboard. This is probably a days work only, there is no excuse for why we haven’t gotten around to doing this in two years. The previous owners of our house very kindly (!!) left us about 40 tins of virtually empty paint, along with some textured flowery wallpaper which again looks as though it could be as old as me and actually wasn’t used anywhere in the house? Instead of clearing it all out to make way for me to build up my own collection of half used paint tins, I just piled things on top of it. Safe to say, now you can barely get in there. I also managed to break the light in there so that needs to be fixed too.

As we are going to be having a baby, I think I’ll be realistic and leave it at that for now. I could go on forever but let’s be honest, we’ll have other priorities next year! The list seems quite do-able don’t you think?! I hope to tick off at least half of these before next Christmas. Let’s see how I get on.

What’s on your to-do list for 2017? Has anyone else hit a brick wall with DIY jobs? Perhaps we can encourage each other to be more productive next year. As always, I love to hear from you so do leave me a comment below :)

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Certain things have happened recently that have made me really stop and think about how important it is to appreciate everything that I have. It’s easy to get bogged down or caught up in your own little world where the tiniest of things can seem like the biggest of deals and I have definitely been guilty of this in the past. But recent events have made me wake up and realise just how much I have to be grateful for, and that I should never take anything for granted.

Now that I am about to become a Mum I suddenly feel this overwhelming urge to fix things about myself that I am not too keen on (and I’m not talking flabby thighs here – they will have to wait!) I’ve been reflecting on certain aspects of my personality that I feel could do with some work. In the past I have been known to be quite negative and I am a compulsive worrier, always anticipating the worst! I don’t want my child to see these things in me and I definitely don’t want them to inherit these traits.

More than ever I feel a responsibility now to teach my child how important it is to appreciate all that you have in life, and to focus on all the good that there is in the world.

Life can be incredibly cruel sometimes, and in those times it will feel impossible to find good in anything. But while I have my family and we all have our health, I truly have nothing to complain about, and I am going to try my best to make sure I remember that at all times!